A new study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives comes three months after a Harvard study that looked at much lower levels of malathion in urine. The recent study discovered thatÂ each tenfold increase in pesticide levels in the mothers’ urine was associated with a fivefold increase in attention problems.

A new nationwide study of U.S. children links pesticide exposure to increased risk of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

The study, published in the journal Pediatrics and conducted by scientists at Harvard University and the University of Montreal, measured pesticide levels in the urine of 1,139 children in the United States. The researchers found that exposure to organophosphate pesticides â€œat levels common among U.S. children may contribute to ADHD prevalence,â€ the study authors reported. Organophosphate pesticides are used in agricultural and residential settings. Certain conventionally grown fruits and vegetables have tested positive for pesticide residue, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Working Group.

The study is the first to look at risks among children with average levels of pesticide exposure.

According to the study, approximately 40 organophosphate pesticides are registered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for use in the United States. The EPA considers food, drinking water, and residential pesticide use the key sources of exposure. The National Academy of Sciences considers diet to be the major source of exposure to pesticides for infants and children.

A new medical study found a 76 percent surge over an eight-year period in the number of calls to the nation’s poison control centers because of youngsters abusing drugs prescribed for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to an Associated Press report.

We now know that the Vioxx risks were apparent years before it was withdrawn from the market. In research published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, scientists analyzed 30 studies, 12 of which were not available to the public when Vioxx was on the market. They have only become available because of lawsuits filed by consumers who said they were harmed by the drug.Â Yet the same Big Pharma folks who are telling us we can’t have a single payer health system are the same ones who are telling us we need tort reform. The studies involved more than 20,000 people, who showed an increased risk of heart attacks, strokes and hypertension among people taking Vioxx.

AndÂ since everyone seems to want to be famous by let me see, faking a balloon launch of their child, or get on Dancing With the Stars, it’s not really all that surprising that parents drug kids for academic edge.
Given what we think is at stake, it just seems well, so reasonable, doesn’t it?.

Is this what we’re so afraid of losing if we have health reform? I don’t think so. Yet we’re so easily misdirected into thinking what we have is the only thing possible. Just ask Neo after he took the red pill.

With over 40% of Americans unconvinced and unafraid of swine flu, and so many forced into bankruptcy from medical issues and over 40% of us have no health safety net except our own simple, natural ability to be healthy, I’d say we’re well on our way to finally coming to our senses. And when we do, we’ll inevitably begin asking ourselves and each other ‘Is It Healthy?”

Once do do, we’ll stop giving ourselves the shaft and begin playing a game worth winning.